The reply will depend on whether Panini was a real entity or an abstract entity.
1. If he was real, when he was writing about the dAtam, anudAtam and mAtras, his chemicals got the better of him. He looked around and saw an apsara walking. He forgot his grammar and fell and landed on the table. That table is called the periodic table.
2. If he was an abstract entity, he got on the wrong side of another all powerful abstract entity called kAlam and was hit hard. He was dumped on the table he used which was called the periodic table because he was trying to understand kAlam.